Duplicating a Wordpress site to Create a Development Area

The Process for Duplicating Your Wordpress Site Includes These Steps

1. Download the Wordpress database using PHP MyAdmin.
2. Download all files in the website directory with an FTP client.
3. Sync/upload the Wordpress files to your development site directory.
4. Create a new database for the Development site and restore the database download to this empty database.
5. Edit wp-config.php on the development site with your new DEV database details.
6. Change the Site URL with functions.php (temporary) or in PHPMyAdmin.
7. Begin building your new site.

General Information on Wordpress Backups.


Create Sync With Your Site
WinSCP and other programs allow you to sync with your website to keep a mirror copy of the content on your server and hard drive updated. It saves time and makes sure you have the latest files in both places.

Transmit for Mac also supports file syncing over FTP.  I've found that for a Wordpress site with only a few file changes (ie: a minor Wordpress version update) that it takes about 8 minutes.